1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a cable connector assembly, and more particularly to a cable connector assembly for high-speed signal transmission.
2. Description of Related Art
For high-speed signal transmission electrical connectors, EMI and wire management are two most significant problems to be solved since such electrical connector usually has a large number of wires to transmit signals which need to be managed. Infiniband connector is a kind of high-speed signal transmission connector which comprises an insulative housing, a plurality of signal and ground terminals retained in the insulative housing, a spacer assembled to the housing and the terminals, a plurality of wires each comprising a signal differential pair transmitting positive and negative signals and a grounding conductor. The wires are managed by the spacer with the signal differential pairs and the grounding conductors respectively electrically connecting with the signal and ground terminals. Additionally, for depressing EMI, a grounding plate is adopted to electrically connect with the ground terminals and the grounding conductors.
Such features are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,685,501, 6,726,503, 6,764,342, 6,869,308, and 6,739,904. As for U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,685,501, 6,869,308 and 6,739,904, each spacer disclosed therein is a whole piece or a pair of upper and lower halves defines a plurality of aligning holes to permit the penetration of wires for aligning the wires. Each spacer is assembled with a large number of ground plates each soldered to corresponding grounding conductors of the wires and ground terminal to depress EMI in signal transmission. However, the number of the ground plates is large which is costly and assembling the so many ground plates to the spacer is time consuming and also costly.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,726,503 discloses an Infiniband type connector with a spacer having upper and lower halves assembled together to align wires and engaging with tail portions of ground terminals with grounding conductors electrically connecting with the tail portions of the ground terminals. U.S. Pat. No. 6,764,342 discloses a whole-piece spacer aligning wires and assembled with a pair of ground plates and short arms of ground terminals with the ground plates directly electrically connecting with grounding conductors of the wires and the short arms of the ground terminals to form electrical connection between the ground terminals and the grounding conductors of the wires. However, the ground terminals of these two connectors all directly connect the ground plates or the grounding conductors of the wires. In some circumstances, a printed circuit board is needed to realize the electrical connection between terminals and wires. The spacers and the ground plates are not suitable for above circumstance. Therefore, a cable connector with improved wire organizer and ground plate is desired to be developed to address above problems.